


lily white

by glitterfox19



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: (not a main character tho), Flowers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Language of Flowers, M/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 06:44:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16080638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfox19/pseuds/glitterfox19
Summary: Prompt: "Sometimes I steal flowers from your garden on my way to the cemetery, but you've caught me and have demanded to come with me and I'm trying to figure out how to break it to you that we're on our way to a graveyard."





	lily white

The first time, Scorpius felt awful about it. He knew it was wrong to steal, and it was even worse to steal something living, but he had forgotten flowers and he didn’t have time to go to the florists. So when he passed by the cute little house with the floating flowers, he thought he could pick something small and get away with it.

The whole rest of the way, he felt guilt eating him up. Sure, it was a small flower, but whoever’s garden that was, they obviously took good care of it for a reason. And who steals flowers, anyway? And it wasn’t urgent that he get to where he was going with flowers, but it was routine, and he quite liked routine.

The next time he did it, he honestly wasn’t going to pull that stunt again. He even had flowers with him. But then he saw these incredible pink carnations and he really couldn’t help himself. He left the bouquet as a sort of peace offering. At least, he hoped that was the message that came across.

When he got to his destination, he hesitated with the newly plucked flowers before putting them on the headstone. “I know, Mum,” he started. At first, when Scorpius talked to the headstone, he felt ridiculous. Obviously the headstone wouldn’t talk back, and everyone else probably thought he was off of his rocker. But it was comforting, and it made him feel better, and who cared about what everyone else said? “I know it’s bad to steal, and you’re probably shaking a fist at me… wherever you are… but I left a bouquet behind, so it’s probably fine. Don’t you think? And anyway, these are beautiful flowers, and I knew you’d like them.”

On his walk back home, he saw that there was a new security camera set up. A tiny one, meant to be hidden in a flower. Scorpius ducked his head on the way back, knowing that he wouldn’t be recognized, but still feeling terrible all the way there. 

It was always a mile and a half to the graveyard. He could probably fly if he wanted to - or Apparate, he did have his license - but he much preferred walking. His mum was like that, too. Drove his father absolutely around the bend. They’d always be late for events, because his father has the worst time management skills Scorpius has ever seen in his life, and his mum would always insist on walking there. The arguments that ensued, while never serious, were legendary.

His dad didn’t come with him too often, but Scorpius understood. His dad was much more quiet with grief, more personal. He got it. It took him forever to understand. He used to get in massive rows with him about it. How he never visited, and did he really care, anyway?

Then Scorpius went on their anniversary, and saw his dad there, sitting silently. Clutching his ring in his palm. It made sense to him after that. Even though he’d never really dated anyone seriously, he knew what love was like. He loved his dad, after all. And he loved his mum. So he left his dad to miss his mum on his own time.

Scorpius always visited on Sundays. It gave him something to do, an excuse to get fresh air and get away from the busy life at St. Mungo’s. His work life was almost a bit too crazy for a personal life, but on the rare weekend he did go out, he did have friends to go with. He wasn’t a recluse by any means. Just preferred his own company, is all.

Sometimes, he wondered if he preferred his own company out of necessity, not out of choice. But he didn’t like to think about that for very long, so he didn’t know the answer. Maybe it was better that way.

The next time, he knew the camera picked up his face. But Scorpius really couldn’t help himself. The gardener, or the homeowner, or whoever grew all those flowers had a terrific eye for plants. And there were these fantastic white lilies, a perfect white, and Scorpius couldn’t stop himself from uprooting them. He made sure to throw his hood over his face on the way out, but he had an itchy feeling that it hadn’t done any good.

“I know Mum! I’m truly sorry. But these were so pretty.” He leaned against her headstone, patting the dirt absent-mindedly. “I’ve started looking up the meanings of flowers, you know. Did you know that lilies are funeral flowers because they represent the innocence that happens after death? Is the afterlife innocent? You’ll have to tell me when I get there. Anyway, I had a ridiculous week. There was this one patient who came in and he’d accidentally transported his left leg to Kenya. I can’t make these things up. Half his body was in Kenya!” 

He did have friends, honest. But he liked talking with his mum more. He knew it sounded crazy, but he wasn’t crazy. She didn’t judge him for talking too much, or too loud, like a lot of people did. And Scorpius knew it was weird to talk to himself, but it felt better than writing it down, and isn’t keeping a diary basically like talking to himself, anyway? So it was just a different kind of diary, that’s all.

It was on the fourth time he visited the garden that he was caught. He was carefully removing a few tulips when the side door flew open with a loud bang. Scorpius dropped the flowers and threw himself over the fence. “Hey mister! Stop! I saw you! Stop! Wait up!”

Scorpius desperately tried to convince his body to Apparate, but all he could focus on was his stinging elbow. He pushed himself to his feet, tried to cover his face, and took off in a mad dash. “Wait up! No! I’m not- damn, you run fast! Listen to me!”

Scorpius elected not to respond and keep on running. His mum would understand if he showed up without flowers this time, he thought to himself. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. 

Of course, Scorpius made a tiny error in his planning. It was obviously a magical household, so clearly the other person was a wizard and could do magic. Therefore it was simple for the other person to perform a spell and stop him.

The other wizard cried out a spell Scorpius didn’t recognize, and all of a sudden he was back in front of the little garden once more. He moved to run in the opposite direction, but was stopped by a silently cast Partial Body Bind. His legs wouldn’t move, but he could swing his arms all he wanted.

“Hey.” Scorpius swung his arms about violently, spooked by the sudden appearance of the person he’s been stealing from a little less than once every two weeks for nearly two months. “Woah there! I’m not- I didn’t call the Aurors, if that’s what you’re thinking. That would be a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?”

Scorpius didn’t respond, and instead took the time to study the face of his captor. He was young - he couldn’t be much older than Scorpius was, really - with a narrow face, but it was open and kind. He had more freckles than Scorpius could count, and a wide, easy smile. His eyes were light green, just like fresh grass. And his hair was the most unruly mess he’d ever seen in his life. Had this guy ever heard of a little hair taming potion? Scorpius narrowed his eyes. The gardener looked incredibly familiar, but he couldn’t place why, so he held his tongue.

“Er, are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I? Sorry about that spell from earlier. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t run away. Not so I could turn you in. I don’t want to do that at all,” he said. “It’s a new spell I developed. Er, sorry, that sounds like a weird brag. Anyway. As I was saying. I don’t want to call the Aurors on you. I just wanted to meet you. As I made up a nickname for you, ah. It’s. Quite embarrassing, actually. Forget I said anything.”

The other man put a hand on the back of his neck, and blushed bright red. All of his freckles stood out more when he flushed. Scorpius decided that it looked good on him, and then frowned, because there was no way that he would be able to talk to the guy, because he’d been stealing from him. He sighed. Just his luck.

“What’s the nickname?” Scorpius said, quietly. He wanted to diffuse the situation so it didn’t get too awkward. He’d already decided that he could never walk to the graveyard ever again. He’d have to Apparate, or find another walking route. There was no way he could walk past this stranger’s house again.

“Um.” The other guy bit his lip and ducked his head. If anything, he turned redder. Scorpius felt his face turn hot, too, but was determined to keep eye contact. “Cute flower boy?”

“Oh.” Scorpius’s face was on fire now. “That’s a good nickname. I thought it would have some variation on thief, or terrible thief, or Evil Man-Child Who Steals My Plants At Random Intervals. Your nickname was quite nice in comparison.”

“Thanks.” They stood there, facing each other. Scorpius started to feel a pins-and-needles sensation in his foot, which was an improvement from the total numbness from before. Maybe that meant the spell was wearing off, so he could go make a run for it and try to Apparate again. “Can I ask an invasive question?”

Scorpius blinked. “Er, okay. I feel like you don’t need to ask permission for that. Seeing as I’ve been stealing from you for awhile. You can ask me anything you want.”

“Can I come with you? To wherever you’re taking the flowers?” Scorpius’ heart sank. Desperately, he tried to Apparate, but his focus was slipping and his legs were still bound to the pathway. “You always walk by and act like you’re not going to take some, but then you do, clearly, and then you come back this way too and you don’t have them. I’m just curious.”

Scorpius wanted to melt into the ground. How did one handle this situation? He wished his dad was here. No, he didn’t. His dad would probably laugh in his face and leave him there. Maybe cast an anti-Apparition spell while he’s at it. The mental image made him wince. “I mean, if you really want to.”

“We can even take flowers from the garden if you want.” The other man unlocked the fence and it swung open. A wind chime played a happy little tune from the porch. Scorpius frowned. It had never played a song for him when he had been there. Then again, he had almost always been there for the express purpose of violation of property. “Oh! How rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Albus.”

“I’m Scorpius.” Albus stuck out a hand. Scorpius almost laughed out loud. This whole situation was ridiculous, absolutely bonkers. But he shook his hand anyway. Albus shook his hand vigorously, leaving Scorpius’ knuckles a bit wounded, then walked purposefully into the garden.

Scorpius tried to move his legs to follow, but found that the spell was still in action. Albus noticed his conundrum, thankfully, and cancelled the spell with a full-body laugh. “Sorry about that. Anyway, let’s go pick something out!”

Albus kept up a constant chatter about every day topics. Scorpius just tried to ignore the loud urge to flee. Every part of his body was begging to join in and ask questions and learn more about this cheerful gardener who seemingly lived on his own, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. His heart felt as heavy as a stone.

“Okay, you go and pick something out! I’ll be right back. I made a little something before you arrived because I knew I needed to have baked goods if you decided to stay!” Scorpius wanted to collapse. Albus was being too nice to him. His lower lip started to wobble, but he was determined to get through these interactions without breaking down. He’d let Albus know that they weren’t going anywhere cheerful, then Albus would leave him alone, and he’d go back to work and never walk this way again, and that was that.

With a resigned sigh, Scorpius plucked a handful of daffodils. They were sunny and reminded him of Albus, even though they’d only just met. He felt a childish urge to chuck them over the fence but refrained from doing so. They were his mum’s favorite flower. He knew that she deserved them.

“Here’s some muffins! I made blueberry because that’s my favorite, and I didn’t know what flavors you liked, sorry.” Scorpius almost started crying on the spot. There was a freshly baked muffin, his favorite flavor, coming from the man he’d been stealing with because he was too forgetful to go to a florist every Sunday. “You look a bit down. Are you allergic? Because I can go get-”

“No, these are my favorite flavor. Sorry. I’ve been having a tough week.” Scorpius took a huge bite of the muffin, and nearly groaned aloud. It was amazing; he wasn’t sure why he expected any different. Albus was clearly talented at things involving staying at home. “Er, you don’t need to come with me if you don’t want to.”

“Why of course I want to! Plus, I feel like you owe me this, anyway,” Albus joked. Then his face became solemn. “Though if you don’t, I completely understand. I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”

He was right. Scorpius did owe him one. “All right, we can get going now. I have the flowers I want.” He held up the stems in demonstration. And then, because he just couldn’t help himself, he continued, “Did you know that daffodils represent encouragement, and in the Victorian era, they represented chivalry? So you could say these flowers are very you.”

Albus’ face flushed dark red again. He opened the fence gate, gesturing for Scorpius to go first. “Haha, I guess you could say that. That’s sweet of you.” They fell into a comfortable silence for the first few minutes, something Scorpius didn’t think could happen with a near stranger.

Then, Scorpius’ traitorous, blathering mouth started working against him. “Did you mean it when you called me cute?” Albus stopped walking, mouth agape. It took him a few seconds before he responded.

“Er, yeah. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

“Okay. I was just wondering. It was very nice of you to say. And thank you for the muffin. It was very delicious.” Albus was regarding him with an expression of absolute wonder. It made Scorpius’ toes crinkle. It felt like he was being dissected, but in a good way.

“Do you have an accent? Are you not from around here?”

“I’m British, but I went to Beauxbatons, so I speak French and English. I guess you could say that I have an accent, but I can’t hear it.” Albus stifled a giggle with his palm, and Scorpius turned around to look at him. “What?”

“No one can hear their own accent, silly. But yeah, you sound a little French. How was Beauxbatons? I went to Hogwarts, myself,” Albus said. He shuddered. “It wasn’t the best time of my life, that’s for sure.”

“It was nice. But I left all my friends behind when I moved back to England. Most of them stayed in France, or went to Belgium. A few are in Germany. But it’s okay. I wanted to be with my dad more, anyway.” Scorpius saw that the entrance was coming up. “Can I ask you something a bit personal?”

Albus looked a bit constipated, but nodded anyway. 

“Do I know you from something? You look really, really familiar. I can’t shake this feeling that I’ve met you before.” Albus made a pinched expression, like he smelled a rotten egg, before responding.

“My dad’s Harry Potter.” Scorpius felt himself go a bit cross-eyed. He bit back the barrage of questions he wanted to ask.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Albus looked positively shell-shocked that Scorpius hadn’t said anything more. “Well, my dad’s Draco Malfoy. So I kind of get where you’re coming from. Famous dads, right?”

Albus chuckled, shaking his head. “Right.” 

The gateway was coming up quickly. Scorpius felt his stomach twisting up. He had quite liked the conversation they’d been having, and Albus was so very sweet. He didn’t want to have to give him up because of this. 

Right before the gates, Scorpius stopped and turned around. “Er, promise me something?”

“Yeah, of course.” Scorpius was thankful, if a bit surprised, by the amount of faith Albus had already placed in them. He guessed that there were certain things people couldn’t go through without inevitably becoming friends, and apparently, stealing flowers from their garden before jinxing them and having them lead you to wherever they’re taking the flowers was one of those things. He just hoped they stayed friends.

“Thanks.” He turned back around.

“Scorpius, you didn’t tell me what I’m promising! That’s not fair! It’s not how it-” Albus’ voiced died when he realized that Scorpius had come to a dead stop directly in front of a headstone. He was grateful that his mum’s was right by the entryway. Otherwise Albus might have gone running before they even arrived.

Gingerly, he laid the flowers on the headstone. “Hey, Mum,” he said softly. “Remember how I said I’d been stealing flowers? Well, here’s the person I’ve been stealing from. I said I was sorry, but he wanted to see where I was taking the flowers, so… here we are, I guess.”

Albus sat down on the plot and touched his fingers to the lettering. “Hi, Astoria. My name’s Albus. I gave your son a muffin. I think he’s a pretty good guy, even though he’s been stealing from me. I forgive him, though.”

Scorpius let out a wet sounding laugh. Then it occurred to him that he was crying. Albus wordlessly produced a handkerchief and passed it to him. He dabbed at his eyes lightly. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” They sat there for a few moments longer, staring at the headstone together.

“This is where you’re going- with the flowers, I mean?”

“Yeah.” 

“Sorry for… for making you drag me with you. I didn’t realize… I hope you’re okay. With this. Um.” Scorpius, in a fit of either madness or bravery, he wasn’t sure which, grabbed Albus’ hand in his and pinned it to the soft earth. “Oh.”

“I’ve- I’ve been telling myself I’m too busy to… to do things like this for a long time. And I tried to get my dad to come with me, but he’s much more private than I am. And I always said that it was never the right time, or my friends wouldn’t care enough. But I’m glad you’re here with me, even though I don’t really know you at all.” Albus smiled. It was small, and it made Scorpius feel squishy on the inside. He stood up and held out his hand.

“Do you want to change that? I can Apparate us to a coffee shop downtown. It’s within walking distance, too, if you’d prefer that. I have a feeling you might,” Albus said, “Judging from the fact that you tried to get away from me by running. What were you thinking, anyway?”

Scorpius flushed in the face of Albus’ laughter. He entwined his fingers with Albus’ as they walked out the graveyard and pack onto the main road. “I don’t know. I skinned my elbow and I was too busy thinking about how it would bruise to concentrate on getting out of there.”

“Well, personally, I’m glad you forgot how to Apparate.”

Scorpius hummed, feeling the happiest he’d felt in a long time. “Me too.”


End file.
